Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad should not forget that he had detained and jailed those who opposed him during his rule, said Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak in a posting on his blog sskeruak.blogspot.com, today.

"From 1998 to 2001 Dr Mahathir detained many of those who opposed him. And he used the detention without trial law to detain those he could not charge in court," he said in response to Dr Mahathir's claims that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak would crackdown on the opposition and activists in the run-up to the 14th General Elections which can be held anytime before mid 2018.

Dr Mahathir in his blog chedet.cc/ today said that there were already signs of a build-up of the case for arresting and detaining opposition leaders that would leave the opposition parties in disarray.

Salleh said the former prime minister's allegation against Najib was totally ridiculous and unfounded.

In fact the Human Rights Watch had said in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, etc. that Malaysia under Dr Mahathir was a police state and Dr Mahathir himself was a dictator, he added.